Console Memories!

[TL]

I was thinking about this earlier and would love to hear other peoples stories on the subject. What consoles did you buy back in the day (or get as a present) and what games did you get with them? Were you happy with your selection or did you wish you got a different system? Did you pick the right games or some right stinkers you still regret?

Here are a couple of mine to start with:

Atari 2600

This was my first ever Atari machine when I just had a Spectrum and it was a joint present for me and my younger brother for xmas. I had seen it in catalogues and on TV and really liked the idea of having a games console where the games loaded instantly, instead of having to wait ages while the tape played. It came with Centipede (pack-in) plus Defender 2 for me and Crossbow for my brother, my dad chose the games.

I loved the system from pretty much the moment I turned it on, you just couldn't beat those joysticks and the novelty of instant loading. While the games were less graphically impressive than the Spectrum they were no less playable and had lots more colour. My dad did really well picking out the games he did, Crossbow and especially Defender 2 were superb. Never regretted buying it and amassed quite a big collection for it.

Sega Saturn

With the Jaguar dying out I really wanted another console and chose to get a Saturn for a few reasons. Firstly because it was a Sega machine and I had previously had a Megadrive and secondly because I liked the games line-up much better than the PlayStation, loads of great arcade conversions. I ended up going to a local indpendent and trading nearly all my Jaguar collection (this in hindsight was stupid) to get one with Daytona USA, Robotica, Panzer Dragoon and International Victory Goal.

I don't regret choosing the Saturn as for me it had the better games at the time, although I do regret trading in all my Jaguar games. The games selection was hit and miss really; Robotica and Victory Goal were crap but Daytona USA and Panzer Dragoon were simply wonderful. Ended up selling it eventually when going out drinking every night took over my life but got one again years later because I love the machine so much.

[AmigaJay]

Sega Master System
My first real console, well after a cheap Binatone Pong wannabe! Loved the space age look of the first model with its sharp angles and space age lightgun which put it light years ahead of the already old looking NES.
Collected some great games including Wonderboy 3 dragons trap which still to this day remains one of my favourite games and I constantly play it on whatever emulation machine I'm playing!
Probably owned it for around 3 years from 1988 to 1991 until the Megadrive, well Sonic turned up! And I flogged the lot to a mate at school for £100 if I remember!

Sony Playstation
The only Sony console is still hold in my heart despite owning all 3! Came at a time the industry was in a mess with so many machines around and pushed through with it's great 'older' image and cd soundtracks that was perfect for people at my age coming out of my teens wanting the next step out of platform games!
Bought mine from the local Sony centre, remember being blown away by Wipeout, still the best in the series IMO, mostly down to taking true skill to get around not hitting the edges unlike the latter games burnout style around the course!
Plus the main reason at the time Psygnosis one of my fav publishers were bought out by Sony to publish on the PS so at that time all their games were exclusive until the Saturn got watered down ports later on.
I later got the Saturn when it hit £99, but for a good 2 years before the PS went too commercialised with family games etc it was some of the best gaming days of my life....where did it all go wrong Sony!?

[dougtitchmarsh]

I have 3 particularly great console memories which stick in my head.

The first was when my cousin invited us over to his house to play on his newly imported Atari VCS. His dad worked for an airline company so they got to the states regularly and they'd brought back the Atari and some games from a shop over there called Toys R Us which we'd never heard of. When he fired up Space Invaders on their big colour TV we were completely hooked. Space Invaders. At someone's house. Free Play. WOW..

The next biggie was a good few years late when I went to one of my other cousins who was a bit younger than I, and he had a Sega Master System with a built in game called Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I hadn't messed around with games or computers for a while and they'd seemingly suddenly jumped forward in a great leap to this all singing all dancing super console. I went and bought one of my own the next pay day.

The same cousin who had the Master System showed me a magazine with the next gen Sega console in. Armed with a good deal of money I bought one, got home to find it had no games with it, and had to go back just before the shop shut (a video rental shop if you remember those) and bought Sonic The Hedgehog. I played that into the wee small hours for the next few nights even though I had work the following days. That one game was worth the cost of the Mega Drive for me.

[zapiy]

Dreamcast
The best console i have ever owned, i guess it was the near perfect ports of arcade classics that made it that much more special. Games like JSR, Crazy Taxi and Powerstone just showed of what a powerful system it was.. Many hours of gaming spent on this console and it still works fine till this day. (more than what i can say for some of my newer systems)

[TL]

Sloan's thread reminded me of this one so I thought I would bump it with another memory:

Sega Mega Drive

My brother and I got this for Christmas in 1992, it came in a pack with both Sonic and Streets Of Rage. This was pretty much the reason we asked for it as my brother was a huge fan of platform games and I loved scrolling beat 'em ups. We had an extension on the back of our house and one side of it was a big double sofa bed and our old colour TV, this had become our games area. We sat there all Xmas arguing over which game to play and then afterwards this became the place where my mates and I hung out to play games and bunk of school. I seem to remember the first game I actually bought for it after Christmas was Super Hang-On, as it was down to £20 in the local WHSmith. The Mega Drive eventually moved upstairs into my brothers room when I got a Jaguar in 1993 but we sure had some happy times with it.

[Rogue Trooper]

I was a 520STFM owner and just started my 1st full time job (in Enginnering) at the time, was doing day release at tech and would nip into the local petrol station to grab new issue of C+VG on a regular basis and it was here i 1st read up on the MD.Reading up on Streets Of Rage and revenge Of Shinobi were enough to convince i'd be blowing a few weeks wages on a MD sooner or later (was on YTS at the time, but plenty of overtime) so blindly ordered a console from someone advertising in C+VG (KC's Consoles?) with those 2 games and was utterly blown away when it arrived.

Soon added Strider to my collection (gob well and truely smacked) and it became the best damn thing i'd bought for years, hit a blip though when i bought a MCD, it would'nt work with my MD, looked like my Pal MD had been a modded NTSC machine or something, def.was'nt offical UK model it seemed so lesson learnt there (never buy from retailers you've no previous exp.of...).

Also, i foolishly used to use those MD game exchange services (send your game+list of wants+payment, get game from your list in return), cannot recal what i'd sent, but few months after swapping games with no issues, i recived a copy of MD Altered Beast! in return for my prized MD cart i sent and company refused to accept it'd come from them! Bastards!.

[DreamcastRIP]

Dreamcast
The best console i have ever owned...

Give that man a knighthood!  :1:

Dreamcast was the first Sega comsole I owned too so this is isn't the hyperbole of a biased Sega fanboy either.